Improvement in hydraulic elevators



UNITED STATES TIMOTHY STEBINS, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENI'I IN HYDRAULIC ELEVATORS.

Specification forming,r part of Letters Patent No. 139,624, dated June 3,1873; application iilcd December 4, 1872.

To lall whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TnyroTHY SrEBINs, of San Francisco city and county, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Elevators; and I do hereby declare the following description and accompanying drawings are sufficient to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it most nearly appertains to make and use my said invention or improvement without further invention or experiment.

I am aware that elevators have been constructed with horizontal cylinders and rigid piston-rods, attached to a rope or ropes for raising the platform; but in such cases the rod is likely to be bent, and only half the space can be utilized. In such machinery, in raising the platform a given distance, it requires twice that distance to accommodate the cylinder and the rigid piston-rod.

I am also aware that vertically-arranged cylinders have been used with the rope for raising the platform attached directly1 to the piston, butin these cases it is evident that it is Vnecessary to have the cylinder of the same height as the height to which the elevator is to be raised. Inthis case, if water is to be `used as a motor, it is very diflicult to get sufficien'thead at the top of building to operate the piston. If air is forced into the cylinder, it necessitates the use of some power to operate the air-pump. f

The object of my invention is to overcome these difliculties, and it consists in a combination and arrangement of a horizontal cylinder, ilexible pistonrod, and pulleys, as is more Vfully hereinafter described.

. place, so as to occupy as little space aspossible, and to avoid the necessity of a well. In most cases two cylinders will be employed for the purpose of adjusting the power to the weight to be moved. The piston B is provided with a ilexible piston-rod, C, which I prefer to make of steel wire, of a size adapted to the load, and this piston passes through a stuffing-box, D. From this point the Wire passes around a pulley, E, of sufficient size to allow the Wire to change its direction Without any permanent set or disturbance of the particles of the wire. It is then carried upward to the proper height, and then passes over another pulley, from which it extends downward and is secured to the elevator platform, as shown.

The water is admitted into the cylinder by a passage, F, and thus forces the piston to the opposite end of the cylinder and ele vates the cage, and the strain on the pistonrod is thus always a tensile one, the weight of the platform being suiiicient to carry the piston to the front end of the cylinder again when it is necessary to descend. The cocks by which the water is admitted to or discharged from the cylinder are operated by a rope at the side of the elevator in the ordinary manner, which are not shown.

By this construction I am enabled to dis pense with all racks, pinions, and gears for transmitting and changing the direction of the power, and the loss by friction is thereby greatly reduced, while the machine is much simplified.

I do not claim, broadly, attaching the means of hoisting the elevator directly to the piston 5 but What I do claim, and desire to secure by and seal.

TIMOTHY STEBINS.

Witnesses:

J. L. BOONE,- C. M. RICHARDSON. 

